News & Events
Grant awarded to Dr. Katy Gill - December 1, 2009
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Katy Gill, a postdoc researcher in Dr. Anthony Grace's lab, has been awarded a three year NRSA grant, Amygdala Modulation of Hippocampus Accumbens Interaction Relevance to Depression, effective December 1, 2009.
PhD Dissertation Defense: Patryk Laurent
November 13 , 2009
Friday, 10:00 am
2nd Floor Auditorium, LRDC
CNUP PhD Defense
Title: Basal ganglia involvement in the reinforcement learning of physical and cognitive actions
Department of Neuroscience Seminar:
November 12, 2009
Thursday, 4:00 p.m.
A219B Langley Hall
Linda Rinaman, PhD
Department of Neuroscience
University of Pittsburgh
Seminar Title: Postnatal Plasticity of Central Visceral Circuits
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
PhD Dissertation Defense: Sara A. Guediche
October 27, 2009
Tuesday, 9:30 am
2nd Floor Auditorium, LRDC
CNUP PhD Defense
Title: Adaptive Processes in Speech Perception: Contributions from Cerebral and Cerebellar Cortices
The Society for Neuroscience - Neuroscience 2009
October 17 - October 21, 2009
Chicago, IL
University of Pittsburgh - Science 2009 Unplugged
October 15 - October 16, 2009
Careers over Lunch: Survival Skills & Ethics Program - October 5, 2009
Title: Faculty Positions at Research Universities
S100 BSTWR
Monday, Noon - 1:30 pm
Dr. Alan F. Sved
Department of Neuroscience
University of Pittsburgh
Grant Awarded to Paul G. Middlebrooks - September 1, 2009
Congratulations go out to Paul G. Middlebrooks, a PhD student in Dr. Sommer's lab, who has been awarded an NIH National Research Service Award entitled The Neural Basis of Metacognition.
Paul's two year proposal seeks to explore how the brain "thinks about thinking" to help understand how to treat patients with disorders such as schizophrenia, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
23rd Annual CNUP Retreat
September 11-13, 2009
Oglebay Resort and Conference Center
Wheeling, West Virginia
This year's speakers include:
John Maunsell, PhD
Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Professor
Alice and Rodman W. Morrhead III Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
Using Microstimulation to Probe How Signals in Cerebral Cortex are Accessed
Kenneth M. Johnson, PhD
Professor and Graduate Program Director, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Texas Medical Branch
Perinatal Phencyclidine Neurotoxicity as a Model for Antischizophrenic Drug Development
Edwin W. Rubel , PhD
Virginia Merrill Bloedel Professor of Hearing Science
Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Professor of Physiology and Biophysics, Adjunct
Professor of Psychology, University of Washington
Experience and Auditory Brainstem Development: Signals, Cellular Events and Critical Periods
Cristina Alberini , PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, and Structural and Chemical Biology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
The Dynamic Process of Long-Term Memory Formation
Grant Awarded to Dr. Sved - August 1, 2009
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Alan F. Sved has been awarded a new NSF grant, Viral Microdissection of Central Circuitry Integrating Autonomic Function . Along with Dr. J. Patrick Card, the three year project will examine the central neural circuitry controlling the autonomic nervous system. Using recombinant strains of pseudorabies virus that express unique reporter genes, the central neural pathways connected to multiple peripheral tissues in rats will be traced. Particular emphasis will be placed on examining brain sites connected to both sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves, providing a potential circuitry for the coordinated regulation of these two divisions of the autonomic nervous system. As a specific component of this research program, undergraduate research assistants will be recruited to participate in these studies.
Grant Awarded to Dr. Grace - August 1, 2009
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Dr. Anthony A. Grace, has been awarded a two-year grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, effective August 1, 2009, and entitled, Stress-Induced Alterations in Amygdala-LC Interactions. By gaining a better understanding of the neurobiological consequences of adaptive responses, the project hopes to uncover the neurophysiological changes that take place within the limbic system that predisposes an individual to drug-taking behavior and contribute to relapse.
Master of Science Defense - Adam S. Olsen
July 23, 2009
Thursday, 2:30 p.m.
4075 Biomedical Science Tower 3
Seminar Title: Increased intra-individual response variability and attentional lapses after chronic cocaine self-administration
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
Master of Science Defense - Warren D. Anderson
July 15 , 2009
Wednesday, 1:30 p.m.
A219B Langley Hall
Seminar Title: Properties and Functions of Ih in Hippocampus Area CA3 Interneurons
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
Grant Awarded to Dr. Moghaddam - July 1, 2009
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Bita Moghaddam has been awarded a new NIH grant, Inhibitory Control of Prefrontal Cortex.
Awarded for five years, the $2 million dollar proposal examines prefrontal cortex (PFC) dysfunction as a fundamental aspect of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.
Undergraduate Department News - 2009 Neuroscience Research Awards
The Department of Neuroscience is proud to announce the recipients of this year's research awards. Pictured below (from left to right) are Samuel Stoyak with the Excellence in Research Award, Daniel Mandell with the James E. Bradler, Jr. Award, and Steven Cassady with the Excellence in Research Award.
The James E. Bradler, Jr. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research —named in honor of Jim Bradler, a former graduate student in the Department of Neuroscience. Jim’s undergraduate research experience changed his life and set him on the path to become a scientist. Jim died unexpectedly in 1990, and this award was created by the (then) Departmental Chair, Edward M. Stricker, to memorialize Jim’s life experience and to celebrate the transformational impact of research.
The Research Excellence Award—created by the Department in 2008 to recognize students who have excelled in the laboratory as evidenced by an unusually high level of productivity, profound commitment to completion of a research project, and great potential for a career in research.
Department of Neuroscience Seminar:
June 23 , 2009
Wednesday, 4:00 p.m.
A219B Langley Hall
Jen-Wei Lin, PhD
Department of Biology
Boston University
Seminar Title: Function of persistent Na current in a branching axon
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense: Fujun Luo
June 23, 2009
Wednesday, 10:00 a.m.
A219B Langley Hall
CNUP PhD Defense
Seminar Title:
Experimental and Monte Carlo studies of Ca2+ channel function and fast transmitter release at presynaptic active zones of the frog neuromuscular junction
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
Grant Awarded to Dr. Rinaman - June 20, 2009
Dr. Linda Rinaman has been awarded a competing continuation grant for project, Central Viscerosensory Circuits - Structure and Function.
The five year project will test hypotheses about the structure and function of interconnected regions of the hypothalamus and limbic forebrain. Experimental outcomes could lead to the development of new therapeutic options for treating stress-related emotional pathologies.
People of the Times
From the University Times, Volume 41, Number 19, May 28, 2009
Neuroscience grants awarded
The Department of Neuroscience recently announced two grants to faculty members:
• Linda Rinaman has been awarded a $335,000 National Institute of Mental Health grant for “Early Life Experience Shapes Visceral Circuits.” The five-year research project will examine the interactions between infants and their mother (or primary caregiver) critical for normal growth and development, and perturbations that can disrupt physiological and behavioral functions in the offspring.
The proposed research will use anatomical and physiological methods in rats to test the hypothesis that the influence of early life events on later responses to stress and emotional events is linked to developmental plasticity of circuits that provide visceral sensory feedback to the brain and generate emotional expression.
• J. Patrick Card has been awarded a four-year grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute for “C1, Rostroventrolateral Medulla and the Central Integration of Cardiovascular Regulation.” Card is collaborating with department chair Alan Sved on the project, which looks at a distributed network of neurons in the central nervous system known to exert a regulatory influence over cardiovascular function and malfunction of the network that can produce hypertension.
Hypertension is a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, but the way in which neuronal activity is coordinated within the central cardiovascular network is not known. This proposal tests the hypothesis that collateralized projections of C1 catecholamine neurons in the rostroventrolateral medulla provides the neural substrate for this integration.
Department of Psychology Seminar
June 3, 2009
Wednesday, 3:00 p.m.
2nd Floor Auditorium, LRDC
Anthony D. Wagner, PhD
Department of Psychology
Stanford University
Seminar Title: Resolving Uncertainty and Regulating Memory: Contributions from Frontal and Parietal Cortex
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense: Michael W. Cole
June 3, 2009
Wednesday, 10:00 a.m.
2nd Floor Auditorium, LRDC
CNUP PhD Defense
Seminar Title: The Biological Basis of Rapid Instructed Task Learning
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
Department of Neuroscience Seminar:
May 27, 2009
Wednesday, 4:00 p.m.
2nd Floor Auditorium, LRDC
Sacha B.Nelson , MD, PhD
Department of Biology
Brandeis University
Seminar Title: Physiological Genomics of Cortical Circuits in Health and Disease
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense: Harvey M. Morris
May 27, 2009
Wednesday, 11:00 a.m.
2nd Floor Auditorium, LRDC
CNUP PhD Defense
Seminar Title: Alterations in GABA-related transcripts in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of subjects with schizophrenia
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
Department of Neuroscience
May 22, 2009
Friday, 10:00 a.m.
A224 Langley Hall
Serena Marie Dudek, PhD
National Institute of Neurobiology
Laboratory of Neurobiology, North Carolina
Seminar Title: Regulating Synaptic Stability (and the lack thereof) in the Developing Nervous System
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense: Catherine Dunn
May 12, 2009
Tuesday, 10:00 a.m.
A221 Langley Hall
CNUP PhD Defense
Seminar Title: How the Brain Constructs Stable Visual Representations: Cortical and Subcortical Mechanisms
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
Department of Neuroscience Seminar
May 11, 2009
Monday, Noon
A219B Langley Hall
Michele Basso, PhD
Department of Physiology
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Seminar Title: Neuronal Mechanisms of Action Choice in the Primate Brain
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience
Undergraduate Graduation Breakfast
April 26, 2009
Sunday, 9:00 a.m.
Pittsburgh Athletic Association - Walnut Room
Sponsor: Department of Neuroscience and the School of Arts and Sciences
PHI BETA KAPPA Induction
April 25, 2009
Bravo to the following Neuroscience undergraduate students who make up 35% of University chapter nominees. These students have attained the highest level of academic achievement in undergraduate studies in the liberal arts and sciences:
- Andrew Abbott
- Steven Cassady
- Erica Ciminelli
- Corey Clyde
- Angela Hattemer
- Ashley Lafata
- Mary Ellen Lisman
- Benjamin Pollock
- Rajiv Reddy
- Lauren Salesi
- Randjodh Singh
- Julie Steinbrink
Initiation will be held in the Teplitz Memorial Courtroom, Law School Building on Saturday, April 25, 2009, 7:30 pm.
Department of Neuroscience Seminar Series
April 22 , 2009
Wednesday, 1:00 p.m.
A221 Langley Hall
Leslie Ungerleider, PhD
National Institutes of Mental Health
Seminar Title: Neural Mechanisms of Perceptual Decision Making in the Human Brain
People of the Times
From the University Times, Volume 41, Number 16, April 16, 2009
David A. Lewis, professor of translational neuroscience and psychiatry, and David Volk, assistant professor of psychiatry, received the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education Kempf Fund Award for Research Development in Psychobiological Psychiatry.
This award honors research excellence in the physiological, psychological and/or sociological causes and treatment for schizophrenia.
Neuroscience Undergraduates
April 8, 2009
Congratulations to the following Neuroscience undergraduates! These students were among 60 Pitt undergrads to present posters for the April 8, 2009 University Honors College Undergraduate Research Fair:
- Andrew D. Abbott (History and Neuroscience - Advisors, Monica Beneyto and David A. Lewis)
- Carine Bou-Abboud (Neuroscience - Advisor, J. Patrick Card)
- Isaac Goldszer (Neuroscience - Advisor, Robert Sweet)
- Karen Jakubowski (Psychology, Neuroscience, and History & Philosophy of Science - Advisor, Jana Iverson)
- Brigid Jensen (Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, and Neuroscience - Advisor, Jeffrey Brodsky)
- Ronny Kalash (Neuroscience - Advisor, Bill Yates)
- Stephanie Kennon (Neuroscience - Advisor, Stephen D. Meriney)
- Aarika Knepp (Neuroscience - Advisor, Stephen D. Meriney)
- Daniel Mandell (Neuroscience & Chemistry- Advisor, Bita Moghaddam)
- Vidya Raju (Neuroscience - Advisor, Glenn Gobbel)
- Mitra Saboury (Neuroscience - Advisor, Linda M. Rinaman)
- Karl Wahlen (Neuroscience and Psychology - Advisor, Tomas Drabek)
Grant Awarded to Dr. Card
April 1, 2009
We are pleased to announce that Professor, J. Patrick Card, has been awarded a four-year grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, effective April 1, 2009, and entitled, “ C1, Rostroventrolateral Medulla and the Central Integration of Cardiovascular Regulation”. Dr. Card is collaborating with Pitt colleague, Dr. Alan Sved, Professor and Chairman of the department and Dr. Mohan Raizada, University of Florida. The project looks at a distributed network of neurons in the central nervous system known to exert a regulatory influence over cardiovascular function and malfunction of the network that can produce hypertension, a major risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease. However, the way in which neuronal activity is coordinated within the central cardiovascular network is not known. This proposal tests the hypothesis that collateralized projections of C1 catecholamine neurons in the rostroventrolateral medulla provides the neural substrate for this integration.
Grant Awarded to Dr. Rinaman
March 20, 2009
We are very pleased to announce that Dr. Linda Rinaman has been awarded a new grant, Early Life Experience Shapes Visceral Circuits. The five year project will examine the interactions between infants and their mother (or primary caregiver) which are critical for normal growth and development, and perturbations can disrupt physiological and behavioral functions in the offspring. The proposed research will use anatomical and physiological methods in rats to test the hypothesis that the influence of early life events on later responses to stress and emotional events is linked to developmental plasticity of circuits that provide visceral sensory feedback to the brain and generate emotional expression.
Pitt Day in Harrisburg
March 17, 2009
Pictured: Alan Sved, Daniel Jimenz, Krishna Ganapathy Subramanian, Beth Siegler Retchless, Erin Zimmerman
For more than 15 years, “Pitt Day in Harrisburg,” has given members of the General Assembly an opportunity to talk with alumni, faculty, and students about their work and to gain a first-hand perspective of the challenges and changes facing public higher education. Members of the Alumni Legislative Network (ALN) have annually traveled to Harrisburg in order to meet with elected officials and to be the voice of Pitt.
Representing the Department of Neuroscience and the CNUP were Alan Sved, Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neuroscience and co-director of the CNUP, and graduate students, Daniel Jimenez, Krishna Ganapathy Subramanian, Beth Siegler Retchless and Erin Zimmerman.
Dr. Moghaddam, "Research Review"
Spring, 2009
Research from the University of Pittsburgh could expand the options for controlling schizophrenia by identifying a brain region that responds to more than one type of antipsychotic drug. The findings illustrate for the first time that the orbitofrontal cortex could be a promising target for developing future antipsychotic drugs—even those that have very different mechanisms of action. The study was published recently in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences.
Bita Moghaddam, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience in Pitt’s School of Arts and Sciences and the paper’s lead author, found that schizophrenia-like activity in the orbitofrontal cortex—a brain region responsible for cognitive activity such as decision-making—could be triggered by the two different neurotransmitters linked to schizophrenia: dopamine and glutamate. Brain activity was then normalized both by established antipsychotic medications that regulate only dopamine and by experimental treatments that specifically target glutamate.
A print verion of the article can be found on the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences' web site, linked here.
NSF Award for Steve Meriney
Feb. 1, 2009
The National Science Foundation, effective February 1, 2009,
has funded Dr. Stephen D. Meriney's collaboration with Professor Joel R. Stiles from Carnegie Mellon University for the project: "Collaborative Research: Calcium Entry and Transmitter Release at the Frog NMJ" .
Most cells in the nervous system communicate using the release of neurotransmitter chemicals. This research will combine calcium imaging and electrophysiology experiments, with large-scale computer simulations, to build and refine molecular models of neurotransmitter release. Using this approach, hypotheses will be developed and tested to explain how synapses use calcium to trigger neurotransmitter release, and how repeated nerve firing changes release, as occurs at all synapses as they respond to changing conditions.
Grant Awarded to Matthew A. Smith
On January 15th, 2009, Dr. Matthew A. Smith, postdoctoral associate in Dr. Marc Sommer's lab, was awarded a K99/R00 grant entitled, "Influence of attention and eye movement signals on population coding in area V4".
Dr. Smith's project will examine the mechanisms of population coding in the visual cortex and the interaction between cortical areas which is potentially important for the medical treatment of patients with various kinds of brain damage, including strokes and other focal brain lesions. The results of this research may facilitate the understanding of diseases such as schizophrenia, which is thought to relate to disorganization of cortical connectivity.
To learn more about Dr. Smith's research, please visit his website at the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC).
Department of Neuroscience Seminar Series
March 18, 2009
Wednesday, 1 p.m.
A219B Langley Hall
Howard Fields, MD, PhD
Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center
University of California San Francisco
Seminar Title: Opioid Regulation of Midbrain Motivational Circuits
Department of Neuroscience Seminar Series
February 11, 2009
Wednesday, noon
A219 Langley Hall
Rodney Johnson, PhD
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Professor of Integrative Biology
Seminar Title: Neuroinflammation and cognitive impairment in the aged: Evidence for a dysregulated linkage between the immune system and brain
Department of Neuroscience Seminar Series
December 3, 2008
Wednesday, 1:00 p.m.
A219 Langley Hall
Hans-Rudolph Berthoud, Ph.D.
Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Louisiana State University
Seminar Title: TBD
Department of Neuroscience Seminar Series
November 25, 2008
Wednesday, Noon
A219B Langley Hall
Stefano Vicini, Ph.D.
Professor Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Georgetown University Medical School
Seminar Title: Tonic GABA-Activated channels controls striatal output neurons
Ph.D. Dissertation Defense: Shawn E. Kotermanski
November 24, 2008 2:00 p.m.
Center for Neuroscience
School of Arts and Sciences/Neuroscience
University of Pittsburgh
Seminar Title: Mechanism of block and behavioral effects of the NMDA receptor antagonists memantine and ketamine
Location: A219B Langley Hall
Sponsor: Center for Neuroscience
Pitt's Annual Nordenberg Lecture in Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry, November 20, 2008, to Focus on Issues Arising From Advances in Science
Stanford professor to deliver noon lecture titled “The Social Consequences of Advances in Neuroscience: Legal Problems, Legal Perspectives”
Henry T. “Hank” Greely, Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law in Stanford University Law School, will deliver the annual Mark A. Nordenberg Lecture in Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry at noon Nov. 20 in the University of Pittsburgh Barco Law Building's Teplitz Memorial Courtroom, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland.
For additional information, see the University of Pittsburgh press release.
Pitt Research Identifies New Target in Brain for Treating Schizophrenia
November 10, 2008, the University of Pittsburgh, Pitt Chronicle:
A study published in Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences shows that orbitofrontal cortex responds to current and experimental antipsychotic drugs.
Research from the University of Pittsburgh could expand the options for controlling schizophrenia by identifying a brain region that responds to more than one type of antipsychotic drug. The findings illustrate for the first time that the orbitofrontal cortex could be a promising target for developing future antipsychotic drugs-even those that have very different mechanisms of action. The study was published during the week of Nov. 12 in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, with a print version here.
Dr. Bita Moghaddam, a professor in the Department of Neuroscience in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences and the paper's lead author, found that schizophrenia-like activity in the orbitofrontal cortex-a brain region responsible for cognitive activity such as decision making-could be triggered by the two different neurotransmitters linked to schizophrenia: dopamine and glutamate. Brain activity was then normalized both by established antipsychotic medications that regulate only dopamine and by experimental treatments that specifically target glutamate.
Department of Neuroscience Seminar Series
October 29, 2008
Wednesday, 1:00 p.m.
A219 Langley Hall
Patricio O’Donnell, M.D., Ph.D.
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Seminar Title: Periadolescent maturation of dopamine actions in the prefrontal cortex in normal rats and in developmental models of schizophreniza
